"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

US Senate

Holy crap! Did I somehow step through “the Looking Glass”? Is the GOP trying to re-define itself ahead of the 2016 election?

First we have news that there is a push back on the opposition to immigration reform….then the ladies pull their support for an anti-abortion bill in essence killing the bill (for now)……and then I got word that there was another vote that shocked me…….

I got this piece of news from Ace news group for whom I write op-eds from time to time……..

#AceWorldNews – WASHINGTON:Jan.22: Sometimes snippets of news just have to be published and this snippet is just one of those and is just as The Hill reported.

The Senate on Wednesday voted that “climate change is real and is not a hoax” as Democrats used the Keystone XL pipeline debate to force votes on the politically charged issue ahead of the 2016 elections.

The Senate on Wednesday voted 98-1 in favor of a an amendment stating that “climate change is real and is not a hoax.”

The provision offered by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to put Republicans on record about climate change ahead of the 2016 election passed with near unanimous support, with only Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the campaign committee for Senate Republicans, voting no.

First, Wicker is my Senator and I would expect nothing different from this big business crony……

Okay, what the Hell is going on with the GOP?

I thought is that they are playing a game to make them look like a real party and not some group of bumbling morons……all this is to look good to the groups that they have lost in the past….women, environmentalists, immigrants……it is all a game, in my mind, a well thought out game…..but a game none the less.

The GOP is moving at record speed in this redefining operation…..but will it last?

Even the d/bags in the Tea Party seem to be playing along with this dice roll……it is all about 2016……nothing to do with the reality of things….just to win an election and have TOTAL power…..this may not last long…..until the gamers get tired of playing.

There are not many in Washington that I would give the time of day……my two faves are Eliz.. Warren and Bernie Sanders……I have been a fan of Sanders since his days in state politics in Vermont……he has consistently been a person of the people…..there have been others that I respected their time in DC but not many…..

Sanders has always been a proponent of the poor and the middle class……he has been vocal and demanding….few in DC would listen and even fewer would have his back when it came to the nut cutting……

He and Warren are making a dynamite one two punch…….the Left is very fortunate to have these two people as their spokesperson…….Sen. Warren let the Congress have it over the latest government funding bill…..she withheld NO punches.

Remember 2008….I know it is a sore subject that few want to revisit……but to solve the problem from ever happening again there was a call to break up the big banks and eliminate the “too big too fail” syndrome where the taxpayer had to cover them for their bad business practices…….Sanders is trying again to do the right thing for the country with his 12 point plan………

Sanders detailed a 12-point economic program to,

- Invest in our crumbling infrastructure with a major program to create jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools.

– Transform energy systems away from fossil fuels to create jobs while beginning to reverse global warming and make the planet habitable for future generations.

– Develop new economic models to support workers in the United States instead of giving tax breaks to corporations which ship jobs to low-wage countries overseas.

– Make it easier for workers to join unions and bargain for higher wages and benefits.

– Raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour so no one who works 40 hours a week will live in poverty.

– Provide equal pay for women workers who now make 78 percent of what male counterparts make.

– Reform trade policies that have shuttered more than 60,000 factories and cost more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs.

– Make college affordable and provide affordable child care to restore America’s competitive edge compared to other nations.

– Break up big banks. The six largest banks now have assets equivalent to 61 percent of our gross domestic product, over $9.8 trillion. They underwrite more than half the mortgages in the country and issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards.

– Join the rest of the industrialized world with a Medicare-for-all health care system that provides better care at less cost.

– Expand Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs.

– Reform the tax code based on wage earners’ ability to pay and eliminate loopholes that let profitable corporations stash profits overseas and pay no U.S. federal income taxes.

I have NO problem with his plan…..which is unusual for I seldom find a plan coming out of the Senate that I agree with…….Americans need to get informed and back Sanders plan…….another 2008 is only a tick away from happening again…….

Because of the collective ignorance of the American people will ensure that we will face another economic crash…..and this one may not be as easy to repair as the last…….

Keep your head in the sand and you will make it possible for more suffering of the American people……I know most could care less about their fellow Americans and that is why we are doomed to keep making the same mistake time and time again……..

A New Year and a new Congress….there will be changes now that the GOP is in control….there will be changes and some will not be for the better…..

Let’s be honest…..I am not a fan of Sen. John McCain….personally, I believe he has not been right on foreign policy in about 30 years…..with all that said he is in position to become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee…..a position he would relish…..

This could be a good thing……yep…you heard me right….a good thing. Why on earth would I say that?

With Senate leadership changing, John McCain appears poised to be the new head of the Armed Services Committee—and that could have big implications for US defense, Reuters reports. McCain has a history of criticizing what he sees as excessive spending on some weapons programs; as chair of the committee, he’ll have more control over how the Pentagon spends its cash. Defense contractors are expecting to spend more time responding to questions from Capitol Hill. Among McCain’s concerns have been a $399 billion F-35 fighter jet program as well as the continued use of Russian-made rocket engines.

Another favorite target of McCain’s has been President Obama’s foreign policy; now, he’ll have a “megaphone” with which to address the subject, the National Journal reports. He’s called, for instance, for greater US support for Ukraine’s military and boots on the ground against ISIS. But though he holds strong views, he’s also known as a negotiator on issues like immigration, the National Journal notes. “With Senator McCain, what you see is what you get. It’s part of his charm and persona, that he is a maverick—he is an outspoken maverick—that tells it like it is to anyone of any party,” says an analyst.

I would not think he would be any good for foreign policy…..but he could be a breath of fresh air when funding worthless programs like the F–35….and he may be an important voice for veternas……but that will be seen………this may be the only time that anyone will hear me say anything nice about McCain and his neocon ramblings……

Who authored the report? Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee; Republicans opted not to participate. Though it was compiled between 2009 and 2013 and runs 6,000 pages, just the executive summary—at roughly 10% the length of the report—will be released.

How detailed is it? The New York Times describes it as “by far the most thorough study of the program to date,” and the result of a $40 million review of more than 6 million CIA cables, memos, and other records. It boasts 35,000 footnotes, reports the Washington Post.

What’s omitted from the executive summary: The identities of some CIA workers and the locations and host countries of secret prisons abroad will be redacted. The Daily Beast reports that about 15 staffers ran the CIA program, and that some fear their names could potentially be determined using contextual details. An unnamed intelligence official says the agency has offered to assess potential exposure of those who factor into the report, along with any security concerns potential exposure could bring. The CIA is not, however, providing security.

Is what’s left all new news? Nope. As the Times notes, we have leaks and Freedom of Information Act requests, among other avenues, to thank for some details that have surfaced over the years about the CIA’s interrogation program. For instance, we know about this Polish “black site” prison.

So what will we learn? The Guardian reports that the summary details the cases of 20 post-9/11 detainees who were tortured. Reuters talked to sources yesterday who say the details get fairly graphic: One detainee was reportedly threatened in a sexual manner with a broomstick; another detainee was intimidated with a power drill (neither instrument was used).

How does the CIA feel about its conclusions? Earlier this year, director John Brennan said the agency agrees with some findings but disputes others. The executive summary that the CIA approved for the public in August was slammed by Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein as overly blacked out; what’s emerging today is a compromise.

We’ll learn more about what the CIA thinks: The executive summary will be joined by a CIA rebuttal and a Republican minority report, NBC News reports.

What does Dick Cheney think? He’s the latest Bush administration official to defend the CIA program. “What I keep hearing out there is they portray this as a rogue operation, and the agency was way out of bounds and then they lied about it,” he tells the New York Times. “I think that’s all a bunch of hooey. The program was authorized.”

It was released in the AM……and the MSM is all lit up with endless analysis and total BS….but what did it all say?

But first one of the best findings these dudes found….I got this via Twitter after the report was released……

Among the many abuses the Senate Intelligence Committee found in its report on the CIA’s torture program, perhaps one of the more embarrassing for the CIA is that the agency actually tortured its own informants at one point.

In short, the CIA shackled two detainees for approximately 24 hours in a standing position to deprive them of sleep — only to find out that the detainees were former CIA contacts who tried to let the agency know of their activities so they could provide intelligence. So the CIA tortured two people who not only were not terrorists, but had been trying to help the CIA fight actual terrorists.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has dropped its long-awaited report on the CIA’s use of torture, and it pulls no punches in its 528 pages, detailing a “brutal and far worse than the CIA represented” program that ultimately was “not an effective means of acquiring intelligence,” reports the Washington Post. The report unveils tactics such as “rectal hydration” that were designed to gain “total control over the detainee,” notes the New York Times, as well as waterboarding that was really a “series of near drownings.” Some key details:

The CIA lied: The agency “provided inaccurate information to the White House, Congress, the Justice Department, the CIA inspector general, the media, and the American public,” as per NPR. The Post notes that one memo ordered the program be hidden from Colin Powell, because he would “blow his stack if he were to be briefed on what’s going on.”

The brutality: Detainees were subjected to “slaps and ‘wallings’ (slamming detainees against a wall) … frequently concurrent with sleep deprivation” for up to 180 hours, nudity, and ice baths. One interrogator told a detainee he could never go to court because “we can never let the world know what I have done to you.” Detainees exhibited “hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation.”

The fallout: The program “damaged the United States’ standing in the world,” “created tensions with US partners and allies,” and cost America its “longstanding global leadership on human rights in general and torture in particular,” the report says.

The CIA’s response: In a statement, Director John Brennan admits the program “had shortcomings and that the Agency made mistakes,” but contends that it “did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives.”

President Obama’s response: He hopes we can now leave the tactics “where they belong—in the past,” he says, per the AP. They “were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.”

John McCain in some eyes is a hero…..and that title is a bit vague…..his survival in a POW camo is not heroic….it was an amazing feat to survive…..any way you remember the prisoner deal that brought a US soldier, Bergdahl?

Like everything McCain has to weight in, especially if it is about foreign policy and world affairs……90% of the time he is DEAD wrong…….now that he is a shoo in for the Foreign affairs committee he being more vocal than normal…..

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says a Senate Armed Services Committee under his leadership would try to uncover more details about President Obama’s decision to exchange Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s for five Taliban prisoners.

Bergdahl’s release became a flash point earlier this year, after the White House went around Congress to secure his release by swapping five Taliban detainees from Guantánamo Bay.

The trade for Bergdahl angered Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans, as the administration kept the prisoner exchange secret until after it was completed, ignoring a law requiring 30 days advance notice to members of Congress before any detainee release from Guantánamo.

WHY?

Is he such a douche that he cannot be happy that an American is returned to his country and home…..after all it is what happened to him. Does he somehow he think he was important deserving of freedom than Bergdahl?

After all the back deals that the Nixon people did with the North Vietnamese would he want an investigation of his release?